A suspenseful Saturday played out to the top of Alpe d'Huez for a second day, this time on stage 20. While Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) put on an aggressive display of climbing and descending, the latter resulting in two crashes and still finish on the podium, he also accumulated the most penalties among a trio of riders. A total of six fines were handed out involving riders and team directors on the final day in the Alps.
Toms Skujins (Lidl-Trek) and Brent van Moer (Pinarello-Q36.5) were each fined 200CHF for sticky bottle infractions. Their team directors, Steven De Jongh of Lidl-Trek and Alex Sans Vega of Pinarello-Q36.5, were each fined 500CHF for the irregular feeding incidents.
Kuss had two penalties for disposing of waste outside a litter zone, which combined for a fine of 1500CHF, 75 UCI points and a one-minute penalty on time in the Tour general classification. Finishing third on stage 20, Kuss moved from 15th to 13th on GC, well out of placing of more than an hour to leader Tade Pogačar with one day to go in Paris. The hit on time did not impact the overall standings, as he was still one minute and 20 seconds ahead of his teammate Davide Piganzoli.
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Over the three weeks and 21 days of racing in a Grand Tour, there are many chances for riders and teams to break rules – purposefully or inadvertently – during the Tour, varying from minor infractions to more serious incidents.
Penalties can be picked up for lots of different things, spanning from small things like feeding too late into a stage or dropping litter outside of the designated zone, to bigger issues like dangerous sprint deviations and or prolonged sticky bottles.
Punishments can come in the form of cash fines, ranging from a few hundred Swiss francs or into the thousands (fines are always handed out in Swiss francs, CHF, which is the currency of the UCI). Riders can also be punished with time deductions, point deductions in certain classifications, relegation, even disqualification for the most serious infringements.
The penalties are generally proportional to the offence, for example dropping litter may be a cash fine, but a sticky bottle that saw a rider save time might get hit with a time penalty. Cash fines are generally deducted from the team's prize money haul at the end of the race.
Infractions that are considered dangerous can also earn a rider a yellow card, a system brought in a couple of years ago. If a rider or staff member receives more than one yellow card in the same race, they are disqualified and suspended for seven days. Three in 30 days earns a 14-day suspension, whilst six in a year means a 30-day suspension – though this is yet to happen.
Penalties are handed out by the race jury and recorded in each day's communiqué.
Below, we are tracking all penalties handed out to riders, and some of the notable fines for team staff, during the 2026 Tour.
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Tour de France 2026 fines, penalties and yellow cards
Stage 2
- Pablo Castrillo (Movistar) - 200CHF for sticky bottle
- Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar DS) - 500CHF for sticky bottle
- Bostian Kavcnik (UAE Team Emirates mechanic) - 500CHF fine and yellow card for irregular assistance of a rider
Stage 3
- Andrej Hauptman (UAE Team Emirates DS) - 500CHF fine and yellow card for breach of regulations concerning vehicle movements during the race
- Daan Hoole (Decathlon CMA CGM) - 200CHF for sticky bottle
- Luke Rowe (Decathlon CMA CGM DS) - 500CHF for sticky bottle
- Clément Braz Afonso (Groupama-FDJ United) - 200CHF for sticky bottle
- Yvon Caer (Groupama-FDJ United DS) - 500CHF for sticky bottle
- Raphael Meyer (Tudor Pro Cycling staff) - 200CHF for non-compliance during feeding
- Sébastien Hinault (Cofidis DS) - 200 CHF for inappropriate behaviour during feeding
- Patxi Vila (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) - 200 CHF for inappropriate behaviour during feeding
Stage 4
- Vlad Van Mechelen (Bahrain-Victorious) - 500CHF and 25 UCI points for disposing of waste outside litter zone
- Kelland O'Brien (Jayco-AlUla) - OTL
Stage 5
- Pieter Vanspeybrouck (Lotto Intermarché DS) - Yellow card, 500CHF for 'breach of regulations or guidelines concerning vehicle movements during the race or failure to comply with the instructions of commissaires'
- Christoph Roodhooft (Alpecin-Premier Tech driver) - 500CHF for 'breach of regulations or guidelines concerning vehicle movements during the race or failure to comply with the instructions of commissaires' and 200CHF for 'Failing to respect the instructions of the organiser or commissaires'
Stage 6
- Yankee Germano (Soudal-Quickstep staff) - 250CHF, yellow card for 'Non-compliance with the article 2.3.025 by a team assistant during feeding (inappropriate positioning)'
Stage 7
- Frederik Willems (Alpecin-Premier Tech DS) - two 500CHF fines for riders disposing of waste or other objects outside the litter zone.
Stage 8
- Olav Kooij (Decathlon CMA CGM) - Warning for intimidation during the sprint.
- Biniam Girmay (NSN Cycling Team) - Warning for intimidation during the sprint.
- Enrico Gasparotto (Bahrain Victorious - DS) - Warning for exiting the lane without using the turn signal
- Christoph Roodhooft (Alpecin-Premier Tech DS) - Fine 500CHF for breach of regulations or guidelines concerning vehicle movements during the race or failure to comply with the instructions of commissaires and/or the organisation
Stage 9
- Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) - Fine of 200 CHF for irregular feeding (“sticky bottle” for a short distance)
- Jose Antonio Fernandez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG DS/manager) - Fine of 500 CHF for irregular feeding (“sticky bottle” for a short distance)
Stage 10
- Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) - 500 CHF fine, 20" penalty for unauthorised feeding during the last 15km.
- DS Gabriel Rasch (Uno-X) - 1000 CHF fine
- Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto Intermarché) - 200 CHF fine for sticky bottle for short distance
- DS Mario Aerts (Lotto) - 500 CHF
Stage 12
- Vlad Van Mechelen (Bahrain Victorious) - Relegation, -18 points, 500CHF and yellow card for deviating from his line
- Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) - Warning for deviation from his line in intermediate sprint
Stage 14
- Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon CMA CGM) - 200 CHF, twice, for sticky bottle
- Julien Jurdie (Decathlon CMA CGM DS) - 500 CHF, twice, for sticky bottle
Stage 15
- Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) - 200 CHF, 10-second time penalty, 15 points deducted from the UCI ranking, and 4 points deducted from the mountain classification - twice, for pushing off against car
- Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost) - 500 CHF, for feeding on foot outside the feeding zone
- Charlie Wegelius (EF Education-EasyPost DS) - 500 CHF, for feeding on foot outside the feeding zone
- Jan Tratnik (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) - 200 CHF, for sticky bottle for a short distance
- Roman Kreuzinger (Bahrain Victorious DS) - 500 CHF, for sticky bottle for a short distance
- Tim van Dijke (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) - 200CHF, for feeding from car in the fixed feeding zone
- Oliver Cookson (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe DS) - 500CHF, for feeding from car in the fixed feeding zone
- Alexandre Delettre (TotalEnergies) - 200 CHF, for feeding from car in the fixed feeding zone
- Cyril Lemoine (TotalEnergies DS) - 500 CHF, for feeding from car in the fixed feeding zone
- Tom Steels (Soudal-QuickStep DS) - 500 CHF, for failing to respect the instructions of the commissaires
Stage 16
- Steven De Jongh (Lidl-Trek DS) - 2,000 CHF for breach of regulations or guidelines concerning vehicle movements during the race
- Hans Baltus (Picnic PostNL team staff) - 500 CHF for breach of regulations or guidelines concerning vehicle movements during the race
- Nicolya Vinokurov (XDS Astana) - 500 CHF for bicycles and equipment not presented for checking at least 10 minutes before a rider’s or team’s start time in a individual time trial
- Dmitriy Fofonov (XDS Astana DS) - 500 CHF for bicycles and equipment not presented for checking at least 10 minutes before a rider’s or team’s start time in a individual time trial.
Stage 17
- Arthur Van Dongen (Visma Lease-a-Bike DS) - 1,000 CHF, yellow card, relegation of car to 23rd place on stage 18
- Hugo Page (Cofidis) - 500CHF for urinating in public
Stage 18
Stage 19
- Samuel Bewley (NSN Cycling Team sports director) - 500 CHF fine for Irregular feeding (feeding when passing the peloton)
- Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) - 200 CHF each for Irregular feeding (“sticky bottle”)
- Aurélien Paret Peintre (Decathlon CMA CGM) - 200 CHF each for Irregular feeding (“sticky bottle”)
- Simone Pedrazzini (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) - 500 CHF each for Irregular feeding (“sticky bottle”)
- Luke Rowe (Decathlon CMA CGM) - 500 CHF each for Irregular feeding (“sticky bottle”)
- Yvon Ledanois (XDS Astana) - 200 CHF for failing to respect the instructions of the commissaires.
Stage 20
- Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) - 500 CHF fine, 25 UCI points for first infraction of littering; 1000 CHF fine, 50 UCI points and 60-second penalty in the GC for second infraction of littering
- Toms Skujins (Lidl-Trek) - 200 CHF for irregular feeding (“sticky bottle”)
- Brent van Moer (Pinarello-Q36.5) - 200 CHF for irregular feeding (“sticky bottle”)
- Steven De Jongh (Lidl-Trek sports director) - 500 CHF fine for irregular feeding ("sticky bottle")
- Alex Sans Vega (Pinarello-Q36.5) - 500 CHF fine for irregular feeding ("sticky bottle")
